Foreign student registration still rising, but more slowly

STANFORD -- International student registration continues to rise
at Stanford, but more slowly than in previous years, according to new figures
released by Stanford¹s Bechtel International Center.

As of this fall, there are a record 2,587 Stanford students on
non-immigrant visas, 37 more than last year. In contrast, the early 1990s saw
increases of about 200 non- immigrant international students per year, and
the late ¹80s saw about 100 a year, according to I-Center Director John
Pearson.

³It didn¹t surprise me that the increase this year was
smaller,² Pearson said. ³My colleagues at the University of Southern
California are reporting actual declines in international student enrollment,
and many other institutions are holding steady.²

The leveling off, he said, has been particularly noticeable at
universities with significant numbers of international graduate students,
whereas ³state schools still heavily recruiting international
undergraduates may see their numbers continuing to rise.²

³Maybe more students are staying home to do their graduate work, or it
may just be one of those curves,² he said. ³We may see a drop or a
rise next year. It¹s very hard to tell.²

Non-immigrant international students now comprise nearly 5 percent of
Stanford University¹s undergraduates (301 out of 6,561), 25 percent of
the graduate students (1,842 out of 7,470), and 41 percent of the
postdoctoral students on campus (398 out of 961).

Another 827 international students are in the United States on permanent
resident status, bringing Stanford¹s total non- U.S. citizen student
population to 3,414.

As in past years, about half of the non-immigrant international students
at Stanford are from Asian countries. Another quarter are European, 15
percent are from the Americas, 6 percent are from the Middle East and North
Africa, 2 percent are from the Pacific Basin, and 1 percent are from
Sub-Saharan Africa.

China continued as the leading country of origin this year, with 245
non-immigrant students (compared with 268 last year), while Taiwan continued
in second place with 226 students. Japan follows with 215 students, Canada
with 189, India with 182, and the Republic of Korea with 159.

Engineering continued its lead this year as the most popular field for
foreign students, with 975 non-immigrant international students, nearly 30
percent of the school¹s total enrollment.

The School of Humanities and Sciences has 589 non- immigrant international
students (about 14 percent of its enrollment); the School of Business, 193
(22 percent); the School of Earth Sciences, 107 (35 percent); the School of
Medicine, 58 (about 8 percent); the School of Education, 36 (about 9
percent); and the School of Law, 20 (about 4 percent).

Majors with the highest percentage of non-immigrant international students
include petroleum engineering (82 percent international); followed by food
research, and German and humanities (67 percent each); and statistics (62
percent).

About 25 percent of Stanford¹s non-immigrant foreign students
- 647 - are women, up 1 percent over last year. Married
students number 728, or about 28 percent of the total.

Individual country totals are as follows. (Students listed from political
entities that no longer exist, such as Czechoslovakia or the U.S.S.R., have
not changed their official country of origin in university records):

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